AVG, the popular anti-virus package, has falsely identified Adobe Flash as potentially malicious. The snafu comes just days after AVG slapped a bogus Trojan warning on a core Windows component.
Users on AVG forums complained on Friday that Adobe Flash was detected by AVG's scanner as malicious, following a recent update. The …

I'd like.....

Say it ain't so, AVG

Man, they're really winning the race to the bottom this year. Look out Norton!

Klunky, unstable out of the gate AVG 8loat, Link Scanner, the falsies this week... I've tried to stay true, but I am rethinking whose enterprise AV I will be running on a new network build(small<20 t's) in the coming week. I'm 100% it won't be Nort, McLaffy , maybe TrendMicro, but I'm not 100% it will be AVG now.

PH, cuz she's probably wondering where the Google Home Page is right now, too...

Well...

I've always been a big supporter and fan of AVG -- always used them, recommended them to other people, and installed it on every client's PC. But this latest rash of screw-ups is really making me worried. I might just bite the bullet and move to NOD32 if I don't see much improvement from Grisoft.

Grisoft following Symantec's lead?

IMHO - AVG was a good Anti-Virus product back in the version 6 and 7 days. First time I picked it up was v6, and was impressed by its small size and tiny updates. A small company, creating decent software.

Then the marketing guys turned up. Version 8.0 seems to be more like Symantecs bloated mess now. They seem to of followed the same path that took Norton Anti-Virus and made it an over blown mess. More about image and pretty icons and "adding features" and loosing focus of the core job.

AVG Version 6.0 had tiny update files, ideal for people on dialup. The program was small and didn't hog resources - which was great for old PCs. (Like that normal home lusers have... 5 year old PCs with 256MB RAM)

Version 8.0 is useless on old PCs. It takes an absolute AGE to start the machines now due to the instance on checking for updates IMMEDIATELY - even before the wireless cards have logged on. (And the less said about the Yahoo sponsored "Safe Search" web bar the better.... How to kill Browser startup times)

When I was a programmer, and looking after a team of programmers, I would make sure all software was tested on the crappiest PC in the office. I knew that the guys sat on "unber-PCs" to develop on, and I wanted to make sure they didn't just code for their fast PCs. Their code had to work on that lemon before I would pass it.

So these latest "false positives" don't surprise me at all. It shows the change to a Marketing Company instead of a Technology Company. Investment is going the wrong direction. (Especially noticeable if you get the reseller emails like I do....)

I'm off to NOD32 now... just have to prey the marketing vultures don't get their claws in there.

Oh dear!

Old versus new

Curiously, two workstations at our office which had AVG 8 installed were affected by this false positive today, but the workstations running AVG 7.5 were unaffected despite also receiving virus definition updates in the morning.

I like AVG, but feel that the version 7 engine is more refined and efficient than version 8. I haven't purchased version 8 for my home computers yet but know that sooner or later when my current licenses expire I will be left with a decision. In all likelihood I will buy Sophos Anti-Virus SBE at that time unless AVG 8 is refined significantly before then.

I just wish Sophos didn't rely on consultancy firms to sell their software, that way everyone could enjoy the benefits of what is unquestionably exceptional AV software.

Ugh!

I can accept the occasional cock-up. Lord knows other vendors have had their share. But two in a row, one of which is a very Bad Thing (user32.dll,) leaves me with a little bit of a sour stomach. Mostly because I have to explain to my customers what happened, and partly because I am their first line of support.

None the less, I have a lot of sites running AVG with no problems and no infections ever while using the software. And while I would much rather have 0% of customers affected, less than .5% dissatisfied customers can be easily taken care of.

Not the first (or third) time

Users of what OS?

"user32.dll, a core Windows component, was identified as a banking Trojan [snip] Users of both AVG 7.5 and 8 (free and full-feature editions) were affected."

That's news to me. "Complete test ended. Found 0 infected files." Oh, wait, maybe it only applies to people who applied sp3? Or didn't apply sp2? Or only those who applied KB8675309 on a Tuesday with a full moon? Or maybe it only applies to the few dozen beta testers running Vista?

What, you mean Flash ISN'T malicious?

OK, maybe not really, officially, technically "malicious" in terms of your garden-variety virus or pwnage, but still... every totally Flash-based Web site I've visited that's forced me to turn on JavaScript just to view and navigate it has been an overdesigned disaster area that beats my eyeballs silly -- flashing, blinking, wiggling, bouncing, stupid noises every time you roll over and/or click on a button, music that automatically begins playing at max volume as soon as the page opens (iirc, a Web design no-no since forever), you name it. Hell, my favorite part of a Flash-based site has always been the "skip intro" button.